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The Rotary Club of Bangalore recently held its installation programme at the Rotary House of Friendship on Lavelle Road. Rotarians were greeted with a loud welcome by the Rotary Bangalore Vidyalaya marching band as they entered the venue.
After the lamp-lighting ceremony, outgoing president Mohan M Gurjar installed Purnimaa Ranganath as the new president. He compared the feeling to the transfer
of the baton in a 400-metre-relay and said, “I feel very relaxed. We did our work
during our term and now it’s up to her to carry on the good work.”
Outgoing secretary Zarir K Batha added, “Rotary is like a three-legged race — we win if we run together in sync with our partner.” Purnimaa addressed the gathering as the new president and spoke of the mixed feelings of hope, trepidation, confidence and pride she was experiencing.
“Being a Rotarian means living by the motto of ‘service before self’. If everyone makes a small change, we can together make a big difference,” she shared, adding, “our agenda for the next year is to focus on the differently-abled and problems of women and the girl-child. We are also looking forward to India being declared polio-free, which will happen if there are no cases reported till January 2014.”
The backdrop and logo of the club were also unveiled on the occasion. Following this, the new board of directors was installed by district governor (DG) KS Nagendra, who
affixed lapel pins on the office-bearers.
It was a joyous moment for the selected members, who were accompanied by their spouses on stage. The DG said, “Our work is to sensitise people to be a part of society and make responsible citizens out of them. If we can put our resources together and do our activities more structurally, Rotary will become a relevant social
sector player to build this country.”
Rotarian Kalyan Banerjee, the chief guest for the evening, was visibly happy
being there. “I love nothing more than meeting happy Rotarians in the country,
hearing their stories and being inspired by them.
This is the third installation I’m attending in the last three days and this is my schedule everyday for the next 15 days!” he stated, adding, “charity is ingrained in Indian culture and subconscious. This organisation is like the ocean — you throw something into it and it keeps coming back to you.”
Before the release of the inaugural issue of ‘The Rotator’ and the club calendar, six new Rotarians were inducted to the club.
“I’m looking forward to make a change and create an impact. I wish to do
something for the education sector and change the new generation to better business leaders,” said Ramesh Dasary, one of the new Rotarians.